Updated

Hundreds of hard-line Buddhists in a Myanmar state wracked by religious violence have protested against the government's plan to give citizenship to some members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority community.

Rakhine state's dominant Arakan National Party led the protest Sunday in Sittwe, the state capital, where many Rohingya lived before an outbreak of inter-communal violence in 2012 forced them to flee their homes.

The protest took place three days after the Rakhine Advisory Commission, led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, urged Myanmar's government to reconsider a failed program to verify Rohingya for Myanmar citizenship and to remove restrictions on freedom of movement.